War on teachers continues: Publication of Teacher “Data” Reports

The court forced NYC to hand over the reports? That’s what Bloomberg claimed on the John Gambling Show on WOR: “I think what people miss is the courts have ordered us to release the data.” Typical of that weasel. The media filed FOI requests because the City told them that, in violation of the agreement Klein signed with Weingarten, that the City would not contest the order. Please make me! Bloomberg begged. And they did. (that a union official would expect the City NOT to try to violate an agreement… that is an issue for another day).

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InsideSchools refuses to publish the reports. Their statement (written by Meredith Kolodner) is first rate:

Here are our top five reasons they won’t help and why you won’t be seeing them on Insideschools. Please add your own, or tell us why you think they will be useful.

1. The ratings are based on exams that state officials have said are invalid.The reports being released are from 2007, 2008 and 2009, before state officials altered exams that they said were not a reliable indication of whether or not students were learning. The exams were only testing a small part of what students were supposed to know, and it was easy to predict what would be on the exam each year. So students who were drilled in a narrow set of skills might do well and their teacher might be rated highly. Teachers who were teaching the whole curriculum and not focused on test prep could be rated lower, even if their children had in fact learned more.2. Test scores alone don’t tell you how effective a teacher is…3. The margin of error on the ratings is huge…4. Teachers of children performing well on the exams could be rated poorly…5. The ratings are not stable from year to year…

At GothamSchools, we joined other reporters in requesting to see the Teacher Data Reports back in 2010. But you will not see the database here, tomorrow or ever, as long as it is attached to individual teachers’ names.

I assume that the Post will publish them, though nothing as of 11:30 AM on Friday.

The paper with the least integrity in NYC, the New York Times, plans to publish the reports. They hide behind their faux-neutrality, and allow some contra voices, but my friends who think there is any decency in TNYT’s accuracy need to reflect on their own assumptions.

I assume that the Wall Street Journal, with far greater integrity, and genuine loyalty to Wall Street, will pretend to be a New York paper, as it occasionally does, to lend support to this war against public education, teachers, and unions.

The Daily News is the most interesting mainstream New York City paper. It’s editorial board is as nasty as the Post’s, but its columnists include Juan Gonzalez, one of most consistent voices for teachers, for public education, and for equality in any of the major dailies. They plan to publish. But now, at 11:30 this morning, they have either posted a joke, or they have been hacked.

Mrs. Doubtfire, with 88 years experience and 23 years of data, seems to be rated D even though her score (his score?) would indicate a C. The other four teachers (the News only has those five posted) all have identical English and Math scores, and are named Jones, LaLa, Couchi, and CouCou. Here’s the hoax listing: Teachers – NY Daily News.